XML Support

BrightScript provides XML support with two BrightScript objects and a set of dedicated language features:

  • roXMLElement: This object provides support for parsing, generating, and containing XML.

  • roXMLList: This object is used to contain a list of roXMLElement instances.

Dot Operator

The "." Dot Operator has the following features when used with XML objects:

  • When used with an roXMLElement instance, the "." Dot Operator returns an roXMLList instance of the child tags that match the dot operand. If no tags match the operand, an empty list is returned.

  • When applied to an roXMLList instance, the "." Dot Operator aggregates the results of performing the above operation on each roXMLElement in the list.

  • When applied to XML, which is technically case sensitive, the "." Dot Operator is still case insensitive. If you wish to perform a case-sensitive XML operation, use the member functions of the roXMLElement/roXMLList objects.

Attribute Operator

The “@” Attribute Operator can be used with an roXMLElement instance to return a named attribute. Though XML is case sensitive, the Attribute Operator is always case insensitive. If the Attribute Operator is used with an roXMLList instance, it will only return a value if that list contains exactly one element.

Examples

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <rsp stat="ok"> <photos page="1" pages="5" perpage="100" total="500"> <photo id="3131875696" owner="21963906@N06" secret="f248c84625" server="3125" farm="4" title="VNY 16R" ispublic="1" isfriend="0" isfamily="0" /> <photo id="3131137552" owner="8979045@N07" secret="b22cfde7c4" server="3078" farm="4" title="hoot" ispublic="1" isfriend="0" isfamily="0" /> <photo id="3131040291" owner="27651538@N06" secret="ae25ff3942" server="3286" farm="4" title="172 • 365 :: Someone once told me..." ispublic="1" isfriend="0" /> </photos> </rsp>

Given the XML in the above example.xml file, then the following code will return an roXMLList instance with three entries:

rsp=CreateObject("roXMLElement") rsp.Parse(ReadAsciiFile("example.xml")) ? rsp.photos.photo

The following will return an roXMLElement reference to the first photo (id="3131875696"):

? rsp.photos.photo[0]

The following will return an roXMLList reference containing the <photos> tag:

The following will return the string “100”:

You can use the roXMLElement.GetText() method to return an element’s text: For example, if the variable <booklist> contains the element <book lang=eng>The Dawn of Man</book>, then the following code will print the string “The Dawn of Man”.

Alternatively, using the Attribute Operator will print the string “eng”.

Flikr code clip